On March 12, 2016, the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club, Houston Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT), Houston Chapter of the Native Prairies Association of Texas, and many other participants helped the National Park Service (NPS) celebrate its' 100th birthday by planting 9,000 Longleaf Pine seedlings in the Big Sandy Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP).
Twenty plus Houston Sierrans showed up and along with other participants happily wielded dibbles (to make the holes) and toted ruck sacks filled with Longleaf Pine seedlings (to fill the holes) as we became “planting angels” and helped restore a Longleaf Pine forest in BTNP. A total of 100,000 Longleaf Pine seedlings will eventually be planted in the 300 acre restoration area. The Rose Verbena provided us with a showy pink celebration of Spring while we planted.
As we found out after planting, when the NPS took us for a short tour of a forest next door, where Longleaf Pine trees over 135 years old live, this 300 acres will be the future “Centennial Forest” in 100 years. As Ken Hyde, Chief of Resource Management for BTNP says, this is where “New Growth” meets “Old Growth”!
Why plant Longleaf Pine trees? The Longleaf Pine forest, from Virginia to Texas, originally covered from 60 to 90 million acres. Today only about 3 million acres (most of which is heavily degraded) of Longleaf Pine forest is left. BTNP has about 15,000 to 20,000 acres of potential Longleaf Pine forest habitat. The NPS will restore and and will maintain this area so that rare species like the Texas Trailing Phlox and Louisiana Pine Snake and vanishing savannahs with prairie grasses and wildflowers will flourish. On our hike we saw Texas Trailing Phlox blooming and enjoyed the open and tall Longleaf Pine forest.
Early in the day, before we got to the planting site, things did not look good. By the time we got to Liberty we could see it had rained. As we drove north on State Highway 146, our cars were drenched! I was worried we would be rained out. But we persevered and when we arrived Ken Hyde was delighted to see. He feared that no one would show on a morning when rain showers and severe weather forecasts were the norm.
I cannot thank Sierra Club and NPSOT members enough. A big “hello and bless you” to Lesley, Jane, J.R., Yong, Kristin, Gus, Elizabeth, Bruce, Sukanya, Vickie, David B., Cherry, Vic, Ana-Maria, Peter, Lynn, Regina, Ellen, Chris, Soyi, Samson, David W., and Song. If I missed anyone, shame on me! What a great and diverse group of volunteers. Each of you makes the Sierra Club what it is and our Earth a better place.
Brandt Mannchen
March 13, 2016
